Sun sipping some syrup
Claude Eigan and Silke Briel
Duo Exhibition at Frontviews, Berlin
Curated by Stephan Klee
26.01.2018 – 10.02.2018
Lean (n.03), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, acrylic paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
62 x 26 x 15 cm
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, acrylic paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
62 x 26 x 15 cm
Lean (n.02), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
50 x 26 x 22 cm
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
50 x 26 x 22 cm
Lean (n.01), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint
43 x 24 x 12 cm
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint
43 x 24 x 12 cm
Year of the rooster, 2018
Resin, plaster, spray paint, wood, straps
170 × 95 × 30 cm
Resin, plaster, spray paint, wood, straps
170 × 95 × 30 cm
Sun sipping some syrup
Silke Briel and Claude Eigan
At first glance the spatial settings of this dual exhibition are obviously very selective, clearly arranged and each item seems to represent its very own kind, clearly holding up a distance to the other objects. While entering the space the works on display even seem to embody a certain kind of inoffensiveness: there is a translucent curtain, a warmly shimmering circular disc in red, some sunflowers in shades of grey, one or two colourful prints in small formats and an indefinable form of a cast is hanging from the ceiling, fixed with belts in bright orange.
Taking a closer view, a certain irritation slips in this accumulation of culture. The curtain is inscribed with “while the fields a burning”, a clear hint on a dysfunctional landscape of agriculture, even a state of emergency. It appears not by coincidence, that the curtain is the central opener of the show and an important changer of perspective. From this new point of view everything in the space can be perceived connected to a certain theme. The red disc may refer to the sun during dusk or dawn. The sunflowers are grey and turn away their heads either to wall or to the ground. Their condition evokes a strange lifeless mood, somewhere between artificiality, ignorance and grief. And by the way doesn´t the hanging cast may now represented the model of a coaled landscape, even containing holes of all burnt substance to look through?
These tracks lead to the general interpretation of a mute state of emergency beneath the landscapes of a hyper capitalistic Anthropocene, that is triggered by the combination of the works on display. Silke Briel and Claude Eigan together draw a multimedia-based terrain of our contemporary times. In this subverted setting the artworks resist against a comfortable consumption, like crystal shivers in a soft pillow. By using mainly synthetic materials and objects of digital distribution to refer to an organic landscape, the both artists even underline the alienation of our actual circumstances.
Text by Stephan Klee
All pictures by Silke Briel
Silke Briel and Claude Eigan
At first glance the spatial settings of this dual exhibition are obviously very selective, clearly arranged and each item seems to represent its very own kind, clearly holding up a distance to the other objects. While entering the space the works on display even seem to embody a certain kind of inoffensiveness: there is a translucent curtain, a warmly shimmering circular disc in red, some sunflowers in shades of grey, one or two colourful prints in small formats and an indefinable form of a cast is hanging from the ceiling, fixed with belts in bright orange.
Taking a closer view, a certain irritation slips in this accumulation of culture. The curtain is inscribed with “while the fields a burning”, a clear hint on a dysfunctional landscape of agriculture, even a state of emergency. It appears not by coincidence, that the curtain is the central opener of the show and an important changer of perspective. From this new point of view everything in the space can be perceived connected to a certain theme. The red disc may refer to the sun during dusk or dawn. The sunflowers are grey and turn away their heads either to wall or to the ground. Their condition evokes a strange lifeless mood, somewhere between artificiality, ignorance and grief. And by the way doesn´t the hanging cast may now represented the model of a coaled landscape, even containing holes of all burnt substance to look through?
These tracks lead to the general interpretation of a mute state of emergency beneath the landscapes of a hyper capitalistic Anthropocene, that is triggered by the combination of the works on display. Silke Briel and Claude Eigan together draw a multimedia-based terrain of our contemporary times. In this subverted setting the artworks resist against a comfortable consumption, like crystal shivers in a soft pillow. By using mainly synthetic materials and objects of digital distribution to refer to an organic landscape, the both artists even underline the alienation of our actual circumstances.
Text by Stephan Klee
All pictures by Silke Briel
Year of the rooster, 2018
Resin, plaster, spray paint, wood, straps
170 × 95 × 30 cm
Lean (n.01), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint
43 x 24 x 12 cm
Lean (n.02), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
50 x 26 x 22 cm
Lean (n.03), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, acrylic paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
62 x 26 x 15 cm
While the fields are burning, 2018
Digital print on mesh fabric, metal
290 x 140 cm
Resin, plaster, spray paint, wood, straps
170 × 95 × 30 cm
Lean (n.01), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint
43 x 24 x 12 cm
Lean (n.02), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, spray paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
50 x 26 x 22 cm
Lean (n.03), 2018
Air drying clay, resin, metal, foam, acrylic paint, cough syrup, codeine, ink
62 x 26 x 15 cm
While the fields are burning, 2018
Digital print on mesh fabric, metal
290 x 140 cm